Building Consensus to Decrease Firearm Injuries and Death in the USA: Engaging Medical and Public Health Organizations to Find Common Ground

Building Consensus to Decrease Firearm Injuries and Death in the USA: Engaging Medical and Public Health Organizations to Find Common Ground:

Abstract

Purpose of Review

Firearm injury deaths are rising and as of 2017 exceed motor vehicle crash deaths in the USA. We as healthcare professionals treat many of the injured, including those cared for in the network of over 560 ACS-verified trauma centers. In order to address this public health crisis that affects us all, we need to develop a multifaceted public health strategy to decrease and prevent firearm injuries and deaths.

Recent Findings

While personal opinions about firearm ownership vary significantly across the USA, an inclusive, consensus-based, public health approach to reducing firearm deaths is possible. This article reviews recent literature on this approach, first building consensus among surgeons and then extending across the entire healthcare professional community.

Summary

There is broad support for a public health approach which focuses on the understanding and addressing the underlying causes of violence while also making firearm ownership as safe as possible. This approach requires the expertise and committed support of healthcare and public health providers, along with their professional organizations, healthcare systems, and public health networks which they lead. To achieve the goals of eliminating preventable firearm-related death and disability also requires engaging firearm owners and members from vulnerable communities as key stakeholders in the public health solution. In order to achieve the goals of the public health approach, increased federal and philanthropic research funding is required to identify and evaluate the most effective injury prevention initiatives.